PESHAWAR, March 26: Pakistan will export electric power to Afghanistan and for this purpose a grid station would be set up in Khost city. An official team comprising senior engineers of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) recently visited Khost city to conduct a preliminary survey for construction of a 132-kv grid station and developing an internal power distribution network in Khost city. The Khost grid would be linked through a 100-kilometre transmission line with a 220-kv grid in Domail, district Bannu of NWFP. A Peshawar-based spokesman for the Tribal Electric Supply Company (Tesco), a subsidiary of Wapda, said that the survey team comprising senior engineers Ziaullah Khan, Chaudhary Mohammed Akhter, Nek Mohammed and Abdul Razzaq Cheema found the project feasible. He said the team also held a meeting with the governor of Khost province, Miraj-ud-Din, and authorities of the electricity department of Khost to discuss details of the project, existing power facilities and electricity requirements of the area.

Cost of the project, which involves establishment of 132-kv grid station, laying of 100-km transmission line and putting in place an internal electricity distribution network in Khost, has been estimated at Rs822.55 million and it would be completed in two years.

The project will also have an extension capacity of six 20-kv feeders to provide electricity to Khost city and its adjacent areas located in the North of Pakistan near the border of North Waziristan Agency.

The spokesman said that with the execution of the project inside Afghanistan, Pakistan will become the fifth country to sell power to Afghanistan. Neighbouring Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Iran are already supplying power to Afghanistan.